We managed a gain today but it wasn't all that pretty as the Dow rose 44 points on light volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. We were up over 150 early but could not hold the advance. I am hoping we get more of a bounce than this in order to position myself with some August OEX puts. We are short term oversold here. GE was up an 1/8 but the daily candlesticks look bearish here. Try to hang around the 200 day moving average here. Gold continued the breakout to the upside, gaining $23. The XAU rose 5 2/3. ABX and NEM gained 1 1/2, while GG added 1 2/3. Volume was good. The US dollar fell today on hints of a QE3. Will it ever stop? Probably not. The July gold share calls were the right play for this option cycle. Perhaps if we get a pullback in gold to the breakout point of this week, maybe the August calls would be correct. However if the overall market tanks it would probably take the gold shares with it. We'll see. Mentally I'm doing OK. The stock indices are acting very weak here and that is strange following such a strong up move recently. I am really not sure what to make of it. 2 days left in the July option cycle. August has an extra week on the options. I suppose I will simply let this week pass and go from there. The volatility increase lately hasn't made things any easier. I really need to be up to the task. I have an idea of what I'd like to do here so we'll see if the market cooperates.